The first Kenyan judge to appear before a disciplinary tribunal is defending himself in the capital, Nairobi.

Justice Phillip Waki went before a tribunal set up after a recent purge on corruption in the judiciary.

Half of Kenya's most senior judges were suspended last year after a committee headed by Justice Aaron Ringera gathered evidence against them.

President Mwai Kibaki set up two tribunals to probe allegations that the judges were behaving unethically.

Open courts

The tribunal investigating the Court of Appeal judges is headed by prominent Ghanaian Judge Akilano Akiwumi while that probing High Court judges is chaired by influential Kenyan constitutional lawyer Lee Muthoga.

President Kibaki said the tribunals would investigate six of the country's nine judges in the Court of Appeals - the highest court - and 17 judges out of the 36 in the High Court.

Justice Waki has denied seven counts of corruption levelled against him by the judicial probe committee on corruption.

Following requests by the accused judges, the disciplinary tribunal is being held in an open court, not in secret as originally decided.